This is my favorite part of my house-featuring my favorite people on earth.
This and they: home.
Captured with iPhone 6s.
in between black and white
I never know that writing need a cause. I simply love to write.
Since my childhood time, I write about anything. Like any little girl, I owned a diary filled with my emotions. I was a pretty dark girl: stormy mood, full of anger and shyness, not a good combination. My diary was full with stories about how I mad at someone or how something depressed me – any negative emotion, really. Channeling my negative emotions through diary was succeed in making me calm, so anybody back then knew me as an ordinary smiley girl.
I remember one day, I had enough of my self: I climbed a tree and burned my diary. That day was the last day I have a diary about my hatred. I moved on and started to write fiction – mostly about falling in love, maybe my teenager hormones finally got to me and love was all over my mind. I’ve made a new diary that full of my feeling – this time, a positive one, the lovey dovey of my teenager time.
Accepted in a University far away from home, I found a new world and a new channel to express my thought. Mixed feeling and structured mind are now my best friend, while shyness was still my biggest draw back. As a psychology student, public speaking should have been easy because it is a mandatory thing for us, but I was struggling to master it. Blog was my practice field. I tried to build an alter ego as a nice and speak-up girl. My blog was my paradise.
And now, after all this time, blog is still a big part of my life. I write because I want to save memories. I want to be able to trace my past, not just about where I have been or who I have met, but also how I have improved throughout these years. I write because I need to proof my existence. I write therefore I am.
The first time you cry
Hipnotized me, o Baby
Left me full of tears
This is my first attempt at making Haiku. Do you guys have any feedback? – @daRkJasm
Like usual, as a challenge for my self to blog more, I sign up to a writing challenge/course. Since the Blogging U now has the on demand program, It is more convenient for me. I already signed up to some course, so there will be many thematic posts coming in the future.
I want to set my mind right in the blogging vibe for this upcoming years, just to discipline my self. Juggling in motherhood, full time employee and part time lecturer : I know it won’t be easy. At least I want to try.
So, for the day one task of Branding and Growth,these are 3 concrete goals for my blog in 2017:
Will this goal set through 2017? Let’s see..
“dream high, baby.. but never dream when you’re high..” -@daRkJasm
It is that time of the year again, where everyone is posting their #bestnine in Instagram.. and here I am, pretending that I haven’t been neglecting this blog for a whole year. ๐
So, how’s life?
2016 is magical year! at least for me..
I have a SON. Whew! I can’t believe it either, but I am living it.
Born in early May, by Caesarean Section in Kemang Medical Care Women and Children Hospital.. Let’s just call him “Baby Z”
Being a mother for Baby Z is my highlight of the year.
hmm.. This long hiatus from writing really damage the quality of my post. It’s hard just to find the right word to write. :sigh:
Other than blessed with Z, 2016 also the year full of surprise for me. Being with many kind people is also another blessing for me. From my babymoon, promotion in work, to lectured a great class. Do expect many throwback post in 2017.
Despite this #Zika, #Brexit, #Trump and many other weird things in 2016, it has been great for me.
Ever since my mind full of wedding plan, the honeymoon plan is also included. I always wanted to spend the honeymoon in a room with private pool because I really want to swim without my long full coverage swimsuit (still not naked, sorry ๐ ).
Since I am a full time procrastinator, my research for possible honeymoon destination is begun in the end of April while I have to leave for my hometown in early may. ๐
The first destination ever crossed my mind was Bintan Island, as it is not too far from Pekanbaru and not too crowded. My dream destination turned out to be out of my league because the resorts are too expensive and I am not feeling comfortable to spend too much money in the first week of our marriage (assuming I have enough money to afford it, which is absolutely not!). Then my attention shifted to the most common destination for honeymoon.. yes! BALI ISLAND. In my mind, there must be a not so expensive luxury villa within my budget somewhere in Bali – since Bali is full of any kind of resorts for any kind of people (also, my fiance had never been to Bali ๐ ). So the hunting began from a deal website which is one of my favorite past time shopping… I found many kind of hotels and villas which offering private pool: researching each one of them by reading review from tripadvisor and other similar websites, also from personal blogs. Almost frustrated by the options – none of it made my heart clicked – a day before my flight to Pekanbaru, I somehow stumbled upon a luxury villa offering flash sale with galleries that I love: The Flamingo Dewata Villa, a luxury private villas in Uluwatu.
Feeling slightly sure and a little obsessed with my choice, I reserved the room via their website and I asked my soon-to-be-husband to call the villa and maybe talk them to give us more benefits. ๐ The phone call was a short one because the receptionist can not guarantee anything and gave us their operational manager’s phone number for us to call. Lucky for us, the in charge person (his name is Mr. Rudi, if I’m not mistaken) was so friendly and very cooperative with our many demands. We were then secured our flight tickets and settled for 4 nights in Bali + 1 night in Bandung for our honeymoon plan.
Conversation about honeymoon and the villa deal were out of my mind in the next week, since I have to face wedding preparation and the wedding ceremony itself. After our Big Day is over, we were back to the honeymoon business and it was only 3 days before our departure to Bali. My husband called the villa again to fix our reservation and compliments : we scored some compliments!
On May 19, we board the plane in the morning to Soekarno Hatta and arrived there before noon. We had to move terminal, since we were arrived in Terminal 1B and our next flight will be from Terminal 3. We finally touched down in Ngurah Rai International Airport at 3.30 pm local time. Picked up by Mr. Rudi himself because he was nearby. We have a pleasant journey to the villa in Pecatu Area : Mr. Rudi told us many things about Bali, its people and its attractions.
Around 5 pm, we finally arrived in the Villa. The check in time is not too long, maybe because we look kinda tired (which newly wed won’t look tired, eh?) and off we went to our room by golf car.
The room was beyond my expectation. I immediately fall in love! We got the room number 3, with large private pool, pool lounge, outdoor kitchenette with complete cuttlery and a microwave plus Fresh fruits (another compliment). Spacious bedroom with king size bed and comfy living room. What I liked the most was the bathroom : it has a bath-up, a shower and large dresser. ๐
For Our first night in Bali, we choose not to go anywhere and just check out our surrounding for simple dinner. The villa was so serene that even the road in front of it felt magical. We had to walk around 10 minutes to reach the nearest “warung” (local convenient shop) to buy some snacks and we finally settled with “pecel lele” (spicy-fried catfish) as our dinner. The dinner turned out to be very tasty and not disappointed at all. After dinner, we called our friend to ask about car rental : we rented a Karimun with cheapest price from Pak made.
We started rather early the next morning because I really wanted my husband to see many places in Bali – since it was his first visit, I had to make good impression so that he will definitely go back to Bali ๐
There were two options for breakfast, either we want to have it in the restaurant or in our own room. For the first day, we chose the first option and turned out that our choice was right because the restaurant is so beautiful and decorated as dreamy as possible : I felt like I was a princess, having breakfast in a white-flowery castle. ๐ For the menu, unfortunately they only offer limited menu list that we had to choose the night before.
It was after midnight when we back to our room, so we chose to have a lazy morning and just enjoyed the private pool. We asked for our breakfast to be delivered to our room.

Another compliment that we scored was private dinner served in our room. My husband secretly ordered steak as the menu : Steak will always be my favorite! We chose the dinner to celebrate our last night in Bali, and it did be a wonderful closure of our honeymoon in Bali tale. The peace breeze, the relaxing moment made that night so intimate for both of us. Those memories will surely linger forever and give me a longing feeling.
Just before the dinner, I got a surprise visit from my university friends whom lived in Bali. They brought their cute daughter all the way from Denpasar to Pecatu and I just instantly fell in love to her.
The Flamingo Dewata Villa really exceed our expectations and I really would like to recommend this villa if you want to be somewhere serene and treasure private moments with your beloved people. I love the vibe… Just thinking about that time gives me chill now. I really want to go back there and rerun the honeymoon! ๐
Love,
The daRkJasmine
It is nearly the end of 2015 and as always, WordPress will happily send us our annual report.
This site is having a major setback from last year in statistic but in real life, I am very grateful to say that Allah has granted me many loves and wonderful events – but it will be for another post.
Click here for this site’s annual report from the kind and lovely Jetpack.
Ciao!
Dear Ma,
This is a day after your supposedly 62nd birthday.
Do you have any idea how much I miss you?
I guess you have, since you are there in the ever after life, but also I guess it’s not matter to you anymore because the only things that will reach you from me are my prays and my good deeds.
Do you have any idea how much I need you now?
I have been married for almost 7 months now, Ma. I also have been pregnant for 4 months. I really want you to be here by my side through all this rollercoaster of life.
Do you have any idea how much I envy others?
They could be hold by their mother every time they want, yet they criticise theirs for any little clumsiness. They could talk to their mother all night long, any day they want, yet they protest for how much theirs are over protective.
Do you have any idea how much you’ve inspired me?
Your love for others, your love for sharing, your love for teaching, your love for your family, your love for many little things that won’t matter to others have aspired me to always fight for what I love and what I want in my life.
Do you have any idea how much you mean to me, Ma?
Not only after you’ve gone, but long before I could even speak, I know I love you and I adore you. I hope you know it too. I hope what I’ve done when you were still with me showed how much I wanted you to smile and always be happy.
I love you, Ma. Still love you. Will always love you
..pardon me for this very late update about my magical may.
This last 15.05.15, I finally got MARRIED!
*tears overload*
For many people who follow our journey from the beginning, they will understand how long and bumpy our road to marriage, but I will only cherish the happiness about this amazing month in my life.
We were celebrating two cultures in our wedding ceremony. Our series of events started with “Malam Berinai” (a malay tradition to apply henna to the bride and the groom) which held in the night before our “Aqad nikah” (Islamic Wedding Vow). The day after the Aqad, we held our first wedding reception in malay culture with malay music and wedding dress. This first reception was held in Pekanbaru, Riau Province in 16.05.15. I finally succeed pouring my love of black and white as my wedding theme, with a little grey here and there.
Three days after the first reception, me and my husband went to Bali for our honeymoon.. (I will dedicate another post about it)
At may 30, we held our second wedding reception in Depok, West Java (my husband’s hometown), this time celebrating Sundanese Culture.
I am so grateful for our magical may, for everyone that help us through ups and downs, for everything magical which has happened and of course for the Gracious of our Lord, Allah SWT. Alhamdulillah.
Here are some remarks from my magical may, may the happiness also be yours!
14.05.15
“Malam Berinai“
15.05.15
“Aqad Nikah“
16.05.15
The Wedding Reception
Venue: Bhayangkara Building, Pekanbaru, Riau Province, Indonesia
30.05.15
The Second Wedding Reception
Venue: Balairung Budi Utomo, Bumi Wiyata Hotel, Depok, West Java, Indonesia
Love,
daRkJasm and Panjirocks

Mari menyiapkan dunia yang ramah pada anak, dan menyiapkan anak yg ramah pada lingkungan.. Selamat Hari Anak Nasional…